to Christianity. The 10 members - six Americans, two Afghans, one Briton and a German - were gunned down after they were accosted by gunmen after finishing a two-week mission providing medical care to impoverished villagers in Nuristan province. The Taliban claimed responsibility and alleged the group were spies and tried to convert Muslims. Jobless rural youth are the focus of a new Afghan security plan designed to help defeat Taliban insurgents mostly in the south, east and southeast of the country. The government, which already has about 200,000 national police (ANP) and army personnel at its disposal, says it also needs local combatants to help fight Taliban insurgency. Mohammed Zia Salehi, an aide to President Hamid Karzai and the chief of administration for the country's National Security Council, appears to have been on the Central Intelligence Agency's payroll for many years. It is unclear exactly what Mr. Salehi does in exchange for his money, whether providing information to the spy agency, advancing American views inside the presidential palace, or both. September The 2010 Afghan parliamentary election to elect members of the Wolesi Jirga took place on 18 September 2010. Final results were not expected until at least October. The Afghan Independent Election Commission - established in accordance with the article 156 of the Constitution of Afghanistan for the purpose of organizing and supervising all elections in the country - postponed the poll from its original date of 22 May to September 18. The number of U.S. and NATO air strikes over Afghanistan has spiked since General David Petraeus replaced General Stanley McChrystal. U.S. Air Force statistics show a 172 percent increase, with 700 separate missions flown in September 2010. At the same time the ICRC reports that the number of War casualties in a Kandahar hospital are "hitting record highs". Mirwais Regional Hospital had nearly 1,000 new patients with weapon-related injuries in August and September, what was double the figure a year earlier. Reto Stocker, the Red Cross chief in Kabul, said the casualties being seen at Mirwais hospital were only "the tip of the iceberg". Georgette Gagnon, Director of Human Rights for United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) announced that casualties inflicted on ordinary people in northern Afghanistan over the past six months this year has doubled compared to the same period last year, the casualties increased especially among children with an increase of 55 percent. A